Portal:Corporate Rights/Intro

Americans are fighting back against the increased power of corporations in elections and public policy.''' In January 2010, a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a revolutionary and very harmful decision asserting that the Constitution bars Congress from limiting corporate "speech," meaning spending, to influence our elections. In the year since the ruling, corporations have increased their role in our elections, and corporations and their CEOs have used "non-profit" groups to run multi-million dollar ad campaigns to influence elections and public policy without full disclosure of their financial interests. In essence, corporations and their CEOs are throwing their voices, like ventriloquists, through front groups working to distort our elections through deception and misinformation. Because the Court's 5-4 decision was an "interpretation" of the Constitution and the five guys in the majority may be there for a decade or more, amending the Constitution is the only way to reverse the Court, but admittedly that can seem like a daunting task.

The Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes this resource, believes we must discuss the problems with the Citizens United decision from the standpoint of core principles--fundamental principles of American democracy and what it means for people to have the right to vote and have representatives who represent us in government, and not big corporations. It is our view that this decision goes to the heart of the key problem with our government: that it is far more responsive to corporate interests than to the needs of the people who live and work in this country. And, we do not believe that this major failure can be addressed through some narrow regulation or compromised statute. Aiming for such an amendment is a powerful organizing tool that can help unite a variety of issues people care about, which have their roots in excessive corporate influence, and can open a path to create pressure for a range of solutions to help restore our democracy and achieve policies to serve the basic interests of the vast majority of the American people.

We believe the decision necessitates having a national conversation about what to do about the problem that most Americans understand--that corporations and their CEOs have too much influence in our politics and policies. A January 2011 poll has found that four out of every five Americans oppose the decision in Citizens United and support a constitutional amendment to reverse it. The Center is providing the resources below, which provide links and information to several organizations fighting excessive corporate influence, to help advance our common objective. You can also sign up to receive emails from us by signing up to help put Americans Before Corporations. Now is not a time for people concerned about these issues to be divided; in order to make headway we must work together and this way attempts to support the necessity of collaboration.